Augie's owner reveals how woman got murder weapon past metal detector

Because of a gap in how women are searched before entering Augie's Cabaret, a 29-year-old woman was able to sneak in a handgun and shoot an adversary in the head, the owner of the downtown Minneapolis strip club said Tuesday.

Jasmine N. Jones, 29, of St. Paul, was charged Tuesday with quickly and fatally ending her "ongoing feud" with 32-year-old LaKisha Neal around 1 a.m. Saturday near the back of the Hennepin Avenue nightspot.

Charged with second-degree murder, Jones remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail ahead of a court appearance Wednesday afternoon.

Augie's owner Brian Michael, whose club is staffed with several security personnel and equipped with extensive video surveillance and a metal detector at the door, said Jones avoided being caught coming in with a gun "by concealing her firearm in her crotch area."

Michael said Jones and her purse were searched after she set off the metal detector and she was asked whether she had a firearm, a question all patrons are asked at the door, Michael added. She responded that she did not and was allowed to enter, he said.

"We did not grab her crotch area," Michael said, adding that his security staff includes men and women.

"It's fundamentally more difficult to search women than men," the club owner said, noting that women tend to have more metal on them in the forms of jewelry, piercings or wiring as part of their undergarments. "There are gender sensitivities when searching a woman. … She took advantage of that. [How she hid the gun] was outside of our imagination."

As for searching men, Michael said, they "are not given the same courtesies. We'll make men go through more. ... I don't care as much how a guy might be humiliated."

Club's video crucial to case

Michael said it was the club's high-tech video recording system that determined the identity of the shooter "probably before she left" the area, allowing authorities to contact Jones' family. Relatives, in turn, persuaded Jones to turn herself in within hours of the crime, he added.

According to the complaint:

Police entered the club about 1 a.m. and found Neal in a pool of blood and a spent cartridge from a 9-millimeter gun under her body.

A woman who saw the shooting said Jones and the victim "have had an ongoing feud," the complaint read. The witness said she heard Jones call Neal a derogatory name, leading to an altercation on the dance floor that turned physical and prompted bouncers to separate the rivals.

Neal and Jones moved toward the back of the club. Jones drew a handgun and shot Neal once in the head.

Video surveillance shows "a muzzle flash" from Jones' hand. It also shows her fleeing out the rear door with a gun. When Jones turned herself in, she surrendered the handgun, the complaint read.

In March 2013 security at Augie's was bypassed before a patron was shot in the leg as he left the restroom. Michael said the gun was hidden by a man who entered in a wheelchair through an entrance that did not have a metal detector.

Overall, Michael said, "I have the reputation of having one of the safest bars in Minneapolis. … We don't have a violent chemistry here."

Augie's was closed Saturday but has since reopened, a decision that Michael said was difficult to make given the trauma that his employees and customers experienced in the club on the night of the killing.

"How soon is too soon?" he asked rhetorically. "This is a friends and family place. We survive on repeat business. It's where people go for fellowship, in a sense."

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482